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Longmont drill ban flames anti-frack forces on eve of "prosper" rally

A small crowd attended a concert and rally against hydraulic fracturing in Denver's Civic Center Park Tuesday night, October 22, 2012. The controversial method of extracting gas and petroleum is more commonly known as fracking. The event drew celebrities such as actressed Darryl Hannah and Mariel Hemingway and musician Jakob Dylan. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

Longmont voters' ban on oil and gas drilling in their city has ignited anti-fracking forces along Colorado's Front Range — and pro-industry groups are pushing back.

Aurora, Commerce City, Denver, Fort Collins, Lafayette and Louisville residents on Monday were mobilizing to push for similar bans on drilling inside their towns.

They're also challenging the reliability of protection by state agencies. And they're broadening tactics to explore statewide ban legislation and a possible future ballot measure.

The prohibition of drilling in Longmont "will serve as a platform for the rest of us," said Marsha Miller, a former state health worker leading the group Denver Community Rights. "The wind blows everywhere. It's our air. And the industry is exempted — it is so unethical for them to have fought to be exempted from the Clean Air and Clean Water acts."

FILE -- Crews work on a well, for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, using a technique, Tuesday, April 12, 2011, called hydro-fracking to release oil from shale formations deep in the earth at a well near Franktown. Fracking has been a useful tool for production, but critics say it could threaten groundwater. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post )

A year ago, Colorado leaders were contemplating the extent to which companies should be required to disclose chemicals they pump underground in hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Today, pressure groups are forcing local officials to consider bans that could affect an industry that could invest billions to expand oil and gas extraction.

"The long-term value of our land, our air and our water in Fort Collins is far more valuable than any money we might gain from oil and gas extraction," said Rico Moore, a former Ames community college teacher who took a new job after a well was drilled on campus near his classroom. He helped launch "Don't Frack the Fort" and this week began a campaign for a ban in Fort Collins.

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Gov. John Hickenlooper has called for a single set of state regulations he says will be more conducive to economic growth than varied local rules. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, charged with promoting and regulating companies, recently began to adjust those state regulations.

"The state rule-making is fine. However, the rule-making relies on enforcement and, because the state government is essentially the political arm of the oil and gas companies, enforcement is non-existent," said Cliff Willmeng, a Denver Health trauma nurse running East Boulder County United.

COGA officials "hope we can chart a new path with Longmont that includes effective state regulation instead of this path of confrontation," according to a statement issued by policy director Doug Flanders.

Oil and gas industry leaders plan a "Prosper Colorado" rally of the business community Tuesday at noon at the state Capitol with "positive, pro-responsible messaging" by heads of the Denver Metro, South Metro and Grand Junction chambers of commerce.

"What is good for local qualify of life? What is good for the state of Colorado? How do we become competitive in the national and global economy?" asked South Metro chamber chief John Brackney Monday.

"Do we wish to be open for business? Or do we wish to be slow and burdensome and un-competitive?"

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